Totally Pampered and Spoiled Halloween

I had quite a wonderful Halloween!!! It's now Wednesday and I'm finally getting around to writing about it. 

Yes, Halloween is my birthday! And it was so nice that it happened to land on a Sunday, so that way our family could join us throughout the day. I woke up to coffee and a donut, and an envelope from my darling husband. He said to get out of bed and get ready because the kids are coming to pick me up! Inside the envelope was a gift certificate to Hollywood Nails, a manicure & pedicure salon down in Green Bay.

It was time to get totally pampered and enjoy a "Girls Morning". Not only did we get a wonderful pedicure, it also included a delightful foot massage and a lotion treatment that soaked in while wrapped in plastic bags and hot towels.  I have never had that before. 

Chelsea opted to only have her nails done, but the rest of us all had our feet done. She has suddenly decided that she doesn't like her feet touched anymore. 

She finished earlier than us,  so she laughed at us and took pictures.  For a Sunday morning, we were the only ones in the place and had a really fun time. It was especially delightful to get pampered because I only do this once every couple years.

Littlest Claire got to sit in the Hello Kitty massage chair. She had both her fingernails and toenails done. She even had cute little daisies added to hers.  Quite the diva... she is used to getting this done with her mommy.

Daughter Erin and I relaxed back in our massaging chairs, and let ourselves get pampered!  Each chair has a remote control, with multiple settings of what kind of massage you want, as well as the incline angle and heat.  I could use that at home! What a nice relaxing way to spend the morning.

Here are my beautiful bronze colored toes. All pampered and refreshed and looking young as 21 years old. (the pedicure gal said that)  I'm happy I don't have old lady toes yet, even though I'm 61. No bunions or corns either. LOL 

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After our spa time, we went out for a nice relaxing lunch together. Some of us had breakfast and some of us had lunch because it was that time of the day. Again, the kids treated me, so I was the Birthday Queen for the Day. 

But it was also time to head on back home because we had a big evening ahead of us. The kids were all fired up about going trick or treating. But the oldest granddaughter Chelsea was also fired up about coming to my house to help cook dinner for the evening. She was going to stop by and do all of the meal prep work and then go back home to trick or treat for a couple hours.

One of her specialties that she likes to make with me is what she called "Sleeping Bag Lasagna".   It's where each lasagna noodle is rolled up in an individual roll and set into the pan to bake.

We made two pans of shredded chicken with alfredo sauce and cheese. Then we also did two pans of traditional Italian style with meat and spaghetti sauce and ricotta cheese.  

Here is a video that she made one other time of the process:

Once the pans were all prepped up and set into the refrigerator, Chelsea was able to go join the rest of her family to go trick-or-treating. I got the dining room ready and set up for the evening.  I am so glad to have a large enough diningroom for everyone.  The table expands with two more leaves and two more chairs if more family were here to join us. 

In the kitchen, I set up mini pizza crusts, packets of sauce, and containers of pepperoni and mozzarella cheese. The grandkids were going to make their own mini pizzas!  Aldi's sells the pizza crusts 3 to a pack and includes the little packets of sauce. All you need to do is add your choice of toppings. What a great way for kids to have control over their own little dinner, and it saves this grandma from having to make it.

Now we were all set! 

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The trick-or-treating began between 3 and 4 we had a few stragglers come in the first hour. Then we had this big wagon pull up with a whole bunch of kids. They would flop down the back stairs and the kids would spread out in every direction and hit up all of the houses. What a great way for parents to take the children trick-or-treating. They had music playing, (it was the Monster Mash song), and the adults were enjoying their own beverages while their children were safely trick-or-treating at each stop.

Pretty soon some of my own little grandchildren trick-or-treaters showed up on my porch. Clomp clomp clomp up the stairs they came. I am SO glad we moved closer to the grandkids, to share in these days. 

I believe that Whitney is Anna, who is from the movie Frozen. Claire was Ladybug, who is some kind of crime fighter, but then later she had to take her costume off and she also had her Halloween pumpkin pajamas underneath.

Heather and Jessie wore these silly lit up masks from some movie or game called The Purge? I don't know a lot about those things, but the masks were kind of cute.  They lit up with batteries, and Heather said they got steamy underneath the plastic. 

Chelsea was a Camouflaged Hunter and had a bow but no arrows. Clayton had a superhero crime-fighting costume, I forget what it was called, because I know that I'm not up on these things. But I did have to sew on some parts of it and add some ties on the back earlier in the week. It was only held together with velcro. What nine-year-old can be contained with velcro? And Mommy Erin was the Cat Noir, who is some other crime-fighting character that I really don't know who that is either. Guess I got to catch up on these things?  Soninlaw Waylen stayed home at their house to hand out candy.

Oldest grandson Jameson, again is a some other character that I don't know on the right, he went out with his best buddy to go trick-or-treating. He would join us later.

Steve said that that is a real sign of getting old, because I don't know any of these new modern up-to-date crime fighting characters.  

Just give me Batman, Superman, and Tom and Jerry cartoons???

The two littlest granddaughters were all excited about playing with some stickers that they got from somebody's house. They weren't even interested in their bags of candy. They were more involved in building little twin skeletons out of stickers to hang on my refrigerator.

The next two grandkids, Chelsea and Clayton, of course had to sit down and sort through their candy and make trades back and forth. They picked out favorites for Grandpa (Smarties), and favorites for Grandma (Kit Kats and Swedish Fish). They sure made a haul and they were quite excited to know that there was still half a bucket full of candy out in front of our house that was unclaimed. I think they had visions of dumping all the rest of that into their own bags. Haha! But no, we said that was going to be saved for Grandpa and Grandma to snack on for the next couple weeks.

The lasagna pans were cooking in the oven along with trays of garlic knots. The grandkids put away their candy bags and set to making their own pizzas. They really enjoyed having the chance to arrange and choose their own toppings.

We laid each one of them on a large tray to go into the oven. To make sure each child got their own pizza back, we wrote their names on the parchment paper with an arrow aiming at their pizza creation. That way there would be no arguments later if somebody was eating someone else's pizza!

Just as the pizza started baking, Jameson showed up after trick-or-treating with his friend. So we quick had to add one more pizza and shift them over a little bit and write another name. It all worked out, and in the end everybody had their own pizza.

We have lots of giggles and laughs around the table in the kitchen, while the kids ate their pizzas, all very sugared up high from their candy as well.  I didn't mind one bit. Having the house full of laughter and kids is something to be cherished. 

In the dining room, we had a nice evening meal with all of the grown-ups around the dining room table. We set up a salad bar along the buffet and had beverages of our choice. It was so nice to have both of our daughters and sons in laws together having a family evening.  

It was time for them to bestow gifts upon me, Heather and Jesse with the kids gave me a huge basket of vanilla scented bath items. I just love they know that is my most delighted pastime in the late evenings is to soak in my tub, enjoying the bubbles and bath salts and lotions and creams that go along with it. My oh my, I sure am pampered!

Erin, Waylen and their kids gave me a big case of my most favorite wine, Trader Joe's Two Buck Chuck. Actually it's called Charles Shaw white zinfandel. Trader Joe's is so far away that I never get there. The closest ones are either Milwaukee or Madison. So they managed to pick me up a case and sneak it in. The kids unloaded the bottles into my wine rack in the kitchen. All set with another dozen. Should last me a year?

The silly little grandkids had to sing me Happy Birthday

After everything was done and the guys cleaned up the kitchen, it was time for a picture with all the five grandkids together. I will print this one out for my photo coffee mug insert because the last one was from about 5 years ago. Then I can look at their smiling faces any time to remember this day.

As the parents were getting ready to leave, I looked at Grandpa and asked him how much energy did he have? He wasn't sure what I was alluding to it first. LOL But it turns out that there happened to be no school on Monday. It was a teacher in-service day. So all five of these little grandkids had absolutely nothing to do the next day. Perhaps they would enjoy a sleepover? The squeals of delight and shouts of joy were deafening. The parents scuttled home to grab them some extra pajamas and all five kids were extremely excited to be able to be spending a sleepover together at Grandma and Grandpa's house. FIVE at a time. What are we thinking?

We sure had a lot of fun, and everybody bunk'd out here there and everywhere in the house. Everyone slept in till at least 6:30 which was a nice treat. All of these kids are used to getting up very early to get to school or daycare. We set up a big breakfast buffet in the kitchen where each one can choose what they want for breakfast with no arguments. Do you think they would do that anyhow? Not really. They all play together and cooperate very well. They also help clean up which is a wonderful way to say thanks.

For some reason, the underside circular base of our kitchen table has become a popular spot to hang out. It's good for two little cousins to sit together and giggle and share their breakfast juice and fruit, apple slices

It's even a fun spot for the bigger kids to hang out and stay close while we are in the kitchen but still have their own space with their electronics. I don't think when this table was created, that designer ever thought it would become the perfect spot for a kid's butt in the middle circle?

The teenager and pre teenager hung out to watch some fun YouTube's in the morning. They were looking at a bunch of fun videos of animals doing silly things. It was good to hear them laugh like children, even if they try to act "cool" now.

Clayton's kind of "in-between" the older kids and the younger kids. He like to run around and play hide and seek with the younger ones, but he also tries to act like he's pretty cool like the older ones. It's hard to be 9 and in the middle.

Everybody helped clean up and pick up, and then they did a couple projects for us around the house. Before we knew it, the parents came to pick them up. Then this Grandma and Grandpa toddled off to bed and took a nice long nap themselves.

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Now it is Wednesday and I am treating myself to the very last piece of birthday carrot cake. It sure was a wonderful birthday celebration and I am so blessed to have such loving children and grandchildren

The next blog will be about our adventures

 in tearing down the narrow doorway 

and putting up the French doors.